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Yelp for Government, One Year Later



A little over a year ago, Yelp and the federal government finalized a terms of service agreement that allows federal agencies and offices to claim their Yelp listings, respond to reviews and measure visitor activity to their listings on Yelp. We believed at the time that our platform could be a bridge connecting citizen-consumers to the agencies and offices that serve them.

Flash forward to today: we’ve seen an uptake in the number of claimed Yelp listings from both federal and local agencies (we also have a state TOS available) and offices. We’ve seen some agencies conduct pilot projects comparing reviews of different locations to see what works and what doesn’t. We’ve even seen our review data in research papers evaluating the customer service of federal agencies.

To celebrate this milestone, we’ve done some digging to see how these government agencies and offices are doing on Yelp.

Over the past year, the following types of government organizations have taken the most steps to interact with citizen-consumers on Yelp by claiming their Yelp pages, responding to reviews, and posting photos:

  • Landmarks & Historical Buildings
  • Libraries
  • DMVs
  • Post Offices

The types of government services with the highest average rating on Yelp are:

  1. Fire Departments – 4.5 Stars
  2. Landmarks & Historical Buildings – 4 Stars
  3. Passport & Visa Services – 4 Stars
  4. Libraries – 4 Stars
  5. Skate Parks – 4 Stars
  6. Community Centers – 4 Stars
  7. Dog Parks – 4 Stars
  8. Authorized Postal Representative – 4 Stars
  9. Embassy – 3.5 Stars
  10. Registry Office – 3.5 Stars

Yelp for Government is just getting started! We’re excited to see even more agencies and offices claiming their Yelp pages and interacting with citizen-consumers. If you work for a federal, state or local government agency, send an email to govaccts@yelp.com and learn how to easily claim your listing(s).

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